CASE STUDY
Esker DeliveryWare
ORDER PROCESSING
MANUFACTURING
SPEEDING THE ORDER-TO-CASH CYCLE
The world’s No. 1 global appliance brand selected Esker’s Order Processing automation solution as the
enterprise standard for automated imaging, storage and document processing to and from its SAP® solution.
With nearly 59 manufacturing and technology research centers
around the globe as of 2013, Whirlpool estimates it receives
over 1.5 million order-related documents each year via fax from
a variety of trade partners.
“We believe that automation of documents in our order-to-cash
cycle, such as sales orders and invoices will reduce errors,
lessen the load on our own staff and speed payment cycles —
and when you’re talking about more than a million documents
a year, that adds up to a significant impact on the bottom line,”
said the Director, Global Enablement Services for Whirlpool.
Prior to Esker, Whirlpool’s acquistion of Maytag which, was
good for business on one hand, ultimately enhanced its existing
issues within order processing and also led to number of new
challenges, including:
Esker Certified Partner the Dolphin IT-Project and Consulting
Corporation, a leading integrator of SAP solution-based
content management products and services, assisted in the
implementation for Whirlpool.
The Challenge
§ Excess paper use; warehouse storage
§ Three-day backlog of orders
§ Average order entry time: 40 minutes
§ 120 customer service reps (CSRs) needed
Manual processing issues
At Whirlpool, inbound orders were received via fax machines
from their trade partners and were then copied twice: once
for CSRs and another for the accounts payable (AP) clerk. The
order would then be manually entered in the SAP® system and
filed away in their warehouse.
When it came time to send out invoices, Whirlpool did so
manually. Staff printed off invoices, folded and stuffed them
into envelopes and sent them in the mail. With this method, the
Proof of Delivery document wasn’t always captured which was
problematic for it meant no payment.
When Whirlpool contacted Esker, they wanted to focus on how
they could improve customer service instead of focusing their
employee’s time on data entry, filing and retreiving orders.
The Solution
Whirlpool implemented Esker’s Order Processing automation
solution on-premises for seamless automation for order-related
document processes to and from its existing SAP system.
“By combining our technology with the hands-on SAP expertise
of a partner like Dolphin IT, Esker is delivering the easy pathway
to document process automation that today’s enterprises so
urgently seek,” said Mike Wenzel, Vice President of Americas
Sales for Esker.
Esker provides a single platform for automating the flow of
business transaction documents directly into and out of ERP
systems and other enterprise applications, eliminating manual
order entry and physical document handling to save time,
reduce costs and improve accuracy.
With Esker, inbound orders are automatically entered into
the SAP system and immediately archived eliminating the
need for manual data entry and allowing for easy document
retrieval from within the SAP solution. Order-related documents
are electronically combined and archived and outbound
communications to trade partners are automated.
The Benefits
After adopting Esker’s solution, Whirlpool was able to handle the
increase in orders due to their acquisition of Maytag by having
more orders automated by their SAP system. By archiving all
documents to IBM Common Store, they were able to reduce the
amount of paper being used.
www.esker.com
CASE STUDY
Esker DeliveryWare
ORDER PROCESSING
MANUFACTURING
We believe that automation of documents in our order-to-cash cycle, such as sales orders and invoices
will reduce errors, lessen the load on our own staff and speed payment cycles — and when you’re talking
about more than a million documents a year, that adds up to a significant impact on the bottom line.
Director, Global Enablement Services — Whirlpool
With Esker’s solution, Whirlpool was able to:
§ Automate more orders through SAP
§ Archive all documents to the IBM Common Store (rather than
use warehouse storage)
§ Eliminate the three-day order backlog
§ Reduce the average order entry time from 40 minutes to
anywhere between 11 seconds and 2 minutes
“And we’re not going to stop here — we’re already working
on plans to use Esker DeliveryWare to further speed other
document processes at Whirlpool,” said the Director, Global
Enablement Services.
The Vice President of Americas Sales for Esker went on to say,
“This initiative is a perfect example of another major worldwide
brand recognizing the massive benefits that document
automation can deliver — and the bigger the organization, the
more astounding the savings numbers can be.“
§ Avoid hiring more CSRs to handle the increase in order volumes
§ Allow CSRs to focus on more customer service oriented activities
Whirlpool
Whirlpool is a leader in the $120 billion global home appliance industry with appliances marketing in nearly every country around the world.
Whirlpool manufactures appliances across all major categories, including fabric care, cooking, refrigeration, dishwashers, countertop appliances,
garage organization and water filtration. Whirlpool markets some of the world’s most recognized appliance brands, including Whirlpool, Maytag,
KitchenAid, Jenn-Air, Amana, Bauknecht, Brastemp and Consul with the Whirlpool brand being the world’s No. 1 global appliance brand.
http://www.whirlpoolcorp.com/
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